Eric Karsenti
Eric Karsenti (born September 10, 1948 in Paris ) is a French cell and molecular biologist. He made important contributions to research into the regulation of the cell cycle and conducted research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg .
Life
Karsenti received his doctorate in 1979 in the laboratory for immunocytochemistry of the Institut Pasteur in Paris and has been researching for the Center national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) since 1976 . As a post-doctoral student he was at the University of California, San Francisco from 1981 to 1984 and was then group leader at the EMBL in Heidelberg in the cell biology department. He soon took a leading position in research into the regulation of the cell cycle and initiated the Jacques Monod conference on the cell cycle in Roscoff, France in 1988.
In 1996 he founded the interdisciplinary laboratory for cell biology and biophysics at EMBL, which he directed. From 2001 to 2003 he also headed the Jacques Monod Institute in Paris and was an advisor to the French Ministry of Research. Karsenti, who is an enthusiastic sailor, was the initiator and director of the Tara Oceans Expedition , which examined the biodiversity of the oceans worldwide from 2009 to 2013. Today (2015) he is visiting researcher at EMBL and at the Institute for Biology of the École normal supérieure .
Research topics
Karsenti studied the biological clock that controls cell division and regulates the migration of the cytoskeleton during mitosis . In doing so, he uncovered the key role of the enzyme kinase cdc2 in cell division, which destabilizes the microtubules , which then build the spindle apparatus that guides the chromosomes into the two daughter cells. The chromosomes themselves generate a concentration gradient for cdc2, which results in the development of the spindle apparatus. The whole thing is an example of the development of complex structures through self-organization in the cell.
In his research he combines approaches from a wide variety of disciplines, from mathematical modeling in synthetic biology to the measurement of small forces in biophysics and advanced computer imaging processes .
The Tara Oceans Expedition was also an interdisciplinary company of over 140 scientists from 23 laboratories, who took 35,000 plankton samples from 210 representative locations in the sea over a distance of 14,000 km. They are intended to provide a quantitative basis for modeling the marine ecosystem .
Awards
In 2015 he received the Médaille d'or du CNRS , the highest scientific award in France. Before that he received the CNRS silver medal. He is a Knight of the Legion of Honor and a member of the Académie des Sciences .
Web links
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- Biologist Eric Karsenti is awarded the 2015 CNRS Gold Medal. CNRS press release, September 23, 2015
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Karsenti, Eric |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French biologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 10, 1948 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |